Overview
The complainant (Mr C) claimed that Midlothian Council (the Council) failed to take appropriate action in response to complaints made by him regarding the anti-social behaviour of neighbours and that the Council's policy in relation to anti-social behaviour was flawed.
Specific complaints and conclusions
The complaints which have been investigated are that:
- (a) there was delay by the Council in responding to correspondence from Mr C and his representatives (partially upheld);
- (b) there were flaws in the Council's anti-social behaviour policy/procedures (not upheld);
- (c) there was inaction or inappropriate action taken by the Council in response to complaints about anti-social behaviour (partially upheld); and
- (d) the Council handled Mr C's complaint poorly (not upheld).
Redress and recommendations
The Ombudsman recommends that the Council:
- (i) provide her with a copy of the current service standards for acknowledging and responding to all modes of contact and correspondence, both for complaints and for general enquiries;
- (ii) consider putting more information into the guidance for staff dealing with anti-social behaviour reports, and into the public domain, on the corroboration standards required before action may be taken against alleged perpetrators;
- (iii) update her on the monitoring and evaluation of the Council's Antisocial Behaviour Strategy (the Strategy) since October 2005;
- (iv) using the benefit of officers' experience since 2005 consider reviewing, possibly with the use of case studies, how they determine when complaints about anti-social behaviour from one or more sources in close proximity have progressed from intermittent and episodic to an ongoing and consistent anti-social behaviour situation;
- (v) provide her with the information and guidance now issued with the Neighbour Problems Diary sheets as this should indicate how and when they should be used, and in particular should explain how the Council will determine the sheets' validity as evidence. In addition, the Council should develop a fuller statement of what they regard as acceptable corroboration and what they regard as a credible independent witness. It might help to explain this to members of the public by using anonymised/fictionalised case studies on the anti-social behaviour section of the Council's website;
- (vi) provide her with information about the Council's mediation service, both in terms of guidance for officers on how and when it should be offered to the parties involved in an anti-social behaviour situation, as well as how information about the service is made available to the public; and
- (vii) update her on the review of the Strategy, on whether or not the Antisocial Behaviour Order guidance in the Housing Officer's Handbook has been clarified, and on how the Council is currently dealing with noise nuisance.
The Council have accepted the recommendations and will act on them accordingly.